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John Hancock
|birth_place= Quincy, Massachusetts |death_date= |death_place= Quincy, Massachusetts |spouse= Dorothy Quincy |party= |signature=JohnHancocksSignature.svg }} John Hancock ' (January 23, 1737 – October 8, 1793) was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that "John Hancock" became, in the United States, a synonym for "signature". Before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable shipping business from his uncle. Hancock began his political career in Boston as a protégé of Samuel Adams, an influential local politician, though the two men would later become estranged. As tensions between colonists and Great Britain increased in the 1760s, Hancock used his wealth to support the colonial cause. He became very popular in Massachusetts, especially after British officials seized his sloop ''Liberty in 1768 and charged him with smuggling. Although the charges against Hancock were eventually dropped, he has often been described as a smuggler in historical accounts, but the accuracy of this characterization has been questioned. Hancock was one of Boston's leaders during the crisis that led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. He served more than two years in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and as president of Congress was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. Hancock returned to Massachusetts and was elected as governor of the Commonwealth for most of his remaining years. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. Early life John Hancock was born on January 23, 1737; according to the Old Style calendar then in use, the date was January 12, 1736.According to the New Style calendar, Hancock was born on January 23, 1737 (Allan, Patriot in Purple, 22, 372n48). Not all sources fully convert Hancock's birth date to the New Style, and so the date is also given as January 12, 1736 (Old Style), January 12, 1737 (partial conversion), or January 12, 1736/7 (dual dating). His birthplace was Braintree, Massachusetts, in a part of town which eventually became the separate city of Quincy.Hancock was born in the North Precinct of Braintree, which was later incorporated as Quincy (Allan, Patriot in Purple, 22). He was the son of the Reverend John Hancock of Braintree and Mary Hawke Thaxter, who was from nearby Hingham. As a child, Hancock became a casual acquaintance of young John Adams, whom the Reverend Hancock had baptized in 1734.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 8; Unger, Merchant King, 14. The Hancocks lived a comfortable life, and owned one slave to help with household work.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 8. After Hancock's father died in 1744, John was sent to live with his uncle and aunt, Thomas Hancock and Lydia (Henchman) Hancock. Thomas Hancock was the proprietor of a firm known as the House of Hancock, which imported manufactured goods from Britain and exported rum, whale oil, and fish.Fowler, "Thomas Hancock", American National Biography. Thomas Hancock's highly successful business made him one of Boston's richest and best-known residents.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 11–14; Unger, Merchant King, 16. He and Lydia lived in Hancock Manor on Beacon Hill, an imposing estate with several servants and slaves. The couple, who did not have any children of their own, became the dominant influence on John's life.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 18. After graduating from the Boston Latin School in 1750, Hancock enrolled in Harvard University and received a bachelors degree in 1754.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 31; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 32–41. Upon graduation, he began to work for his uncle, just as the French and Indian War (1754–1763) had begun. Thomas Hancock had close relations with the royal governors of Massachusetts, and secured profitable government contracts during the war.Allan, Patriot in Purple, 61. John Hancock learned much about his uncle's shipping business during these years, and was trained for eventual partnership in the firm. Hancock worked hard, but he also enjoyed playing the role of a wealthy aristocrat, and developed a fondness for expensive clothes.Allan, Patriot in Purple, 58–59; Unger, Merchant King, 50. From 1760 to 1761, Hancock lived in England while building relationships with customers and suppliers. Back in Boston, Hancock gradually took over the House of Hancock as his uncle's health failed, becoming a full partner in January 1763.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 46; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 74; Unger, Merchant King, 63. He became a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in October 1762, which connected him with many of Boston's most influential citizens.Allan, Patriot in Purple, 85. When Thomas Hancock died in August 1764, John inherited the business, Hancock Manor, two or three household slaves, and thousands of acres of land, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the colonies.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 48–59; Unger, Merchant King, 66–68. The household slaves continued to work for John and his aunt, but were eventually freed through the terms of Thomas Hancock's will; there is no evidence that John Hancock ever bought or sold slaves.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 78. Growing imperial tensions After its victory in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the British Empire was deep in debt. Looking for new sources of revenue, the British Parliament sought, for the first time, to directly tax the colonies, beginning with the Sugar Act of 1764.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 53. The act provoked outrage in Boston, where it was widely viewed as a violation of colonial rights. Men such as James Otis and Samuel Adams argued that because the colonists were not represented in Parliament, they could not be taxed by that body; only the colonial assemblies, where the colonists were represented, could levy taxes upon the colonies. Hancock was not yet a political activist, however: he criticized the tax for economic, rather than constitutional, reasons.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 53. Hancock emerged as a leading political figure in Boston just as tensions with Great Britain were increasing. In March 1765, he was elected as one of Boston's five selectmen, an office previously held by his uncle for many years.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 55. Soon after, Parliament passed the 1765 Stamp Act, a wildly unpopular measure in the colonies that produced riots and organized resistance. Hancock initially took a moderate position: as a loyal British subject, he thought that the colonists should submit to the act, even though he believed that Parliament was misguided.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 56. Within a few months, Hancock had changed his mind, although he continued to disapprove of violence and the intimidation of royal officials by mobs.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 58–60. Hancock joined the resistance to the Stamp Act by participating in a boycott of British goods, which made him popular in Boston. After Bostonians learned of the impending repeal of the Stamp Act, Hancock was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in May 1766.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 63–64. Hancock's political success benefited from the support of Samuel Adams, the clerk of the House of Representatives and a leader of Boston's "popular party", also known as "Whigs" and later as "Patriots". The two men made an unlikely pair. Fifteen years older than Hancock, Adams had a somber, Puritan outlook that stood in marked contrast to Hancock's taste for luxury and extravagance.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 109; Fowler, Samuel Adams, 96. Some traditional stories suggest that Adams masterminded Hancock's political ascendancy so that the merchant's great wealth could be used to further Adams's agenda. In some of these tales, Hancock is portrayed as shallow and vain, easily manipulated by Adams.Adams, "Empty Barrel", 428. In other versions, Hancock is moderate and reasonable, while Adams is radical and dangerous.According to journalist Harlow Unger, for example, Hancock joined Adams out of fear, essentially paying Adams off to protect himself from the Adams-controlled mob (Merchant King, 95), but biding his time until he could "seize patriot leadership from the radicals" (122). Unger embraces the traditional "Tory interpretation" of Adams as a Machiavellian radical—calling him, for example, a "sinister, power-hungry plotter" (151)—a view now regarded as an inaccurate stereotype by many academic historians; see James M. O'Toole, "The Historical Interpretations of Samuel Adams", New England Quarterly 49 (March 1976), 82–96. Historian William M. Fowler, who wrote biographies of both men, argued that these stories contain a grain of truth, but are mostly folklore. Fowler characterized the relationship between the two as symbiotic, with Adams as the mentor and Hancock the protégé.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 64–65; Fowler, Samuel Adams, 73. Townshend Acts crisis After the repeal of the Stamp Act, Parliament took a different approach to raising revenue, passing the 1767 Townshend Acts, which established new duties on various imports and strengthened the customs agency by creating the American Customs Board. The British government believed that a more efficient customs system was necessary because many colonial American merchants had been smuggling. Smugglers violated the Navigation Acts by trading with ports outside of the British Empire and avoiding import taxes. Parliament hoped that the new system would reduce smuggling and generate revenue for the government.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 71–72. Colonial merchants, even those not involved in smuggling, found the new regulations oppressive. Other colonists protested that new duties were another attempt by Parliament to tax the colonies without their consent. Hancock joined other Bostonians in calling for a boycott of British imports until the Townshend duties were repealed.Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, 111–14; Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 73. In their enforcement of the customs regulations, the Customs Board targeted Hancock, Boston's wealthiest Whig. They may have suspected that he was a smuggler, or they may have wanted to harass him because of his politics, especially after Hancock snubbed Governor Francis Bernard by refusing to attend public functions when the customs officials were present.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 82; Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 527–28. On April 9, 1768, two customs employees (called tidesmen) boarded Hancock's brig Lydia in Boston Harbor. Hancock was summoned, and finding that the agents lacked a writ of assistance (a general search warrant), did not allow them to go below deck. When one of them later managed to get into the hold, Hancock's men forced the tidesman back on deck.Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 530; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 103; Unger, Merchant King, 118. The exact details and sequence of events in the Lydia affair varies slightly in these accounts. Customs officials wanted to file charges, but the case was dropped when Massachusetts Attorney General Jonathan Sewell ruled that Hancock had broken no laws.Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 530–31; Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 82; Unger, Merchant King, 118–19. Later, some of Hancock's most ardent admirers would call this incident the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies and credit Hancock with initiating the American Revolution.Allan, Patriot in Purple, 103. Allan does not fully endorse this view. ''Liberty'' affair The next incident proved to be a major event in the coming of the American Revolution. On the evening of May 9, 1768, Hancock's sloop ''Liberty'' arrived in Boston Harbor, carrying a shipment of Madeira wine. When custom officers inspected the ship the next morning, they found that it contained 25 pipes of wine, just one fourth of the ship's carrying capacity.Unger, Merchant King, 119; Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 84. For uncertainty of how much wine the Liberty held, see Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 525. Hancock paid the duties on the 25 pipes of wine, but officials suspected that he had arranged to have additional pipes of wine unloaded during the night to avoid paying the duties for the entire cargo.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 84; Wroth and Zobel, Adams Legal Papers, 2:174. They did not have any evidence to prove this, however, since the two tidesmen who had stayed on the ship over night gave a sworn statement that nothing had been unloaded.Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 521–22; Unger, Merchant King, 119. One month later, while the British warship [[HMS Romney (1762)|HMS Romney]] was in port, one of the tidesmen changed his story: he now claimed that he had been forcibly held on the Liberty while it had been illegally unloaded.Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 522; Unger, Merchant King, 120; Wroth and Zobel, Adams Legal Papers, 2:175. On June 10, customs officials seized the Liberty, which had since been loaded with new cargo, and towed it out to the Romney. Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the Romney had been impressing sailors in Boston Harbor, began to riot.The riot may have arisen because observers thought that sailors and marines coming ashore to seize the Liberty were a press gang; Reid, Rebellious Spirit, 92–93. The next day, customs officials, claiming that they were unsafe in town, relocated to the Romney, and then to Castle William, an island fort in the harbor.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 85; Unger, Merchant King, 120. Whigs insisted that the customs officials were exaggerating the danger to convince London to send troops; Reid, Rebellious Spirit, 104–20. Hancock was involved in two lawsuits stemming from the Liberty incident: an in rem suit against the ship, and an in personam suit against himself. As was the custom, any penalties assessed by the court would be awarded to the governor, the informer, and the Crown, each getting a third.Wroth and Zobel, Adams Legal Papers, 186. The first suit, filed on June 22, 1768, resulted in the confiscation of the Liberty in August. Customs officials then used the ship to enforce trade regulations until it was burned by angry colonists in Rhode Island the following year.Wroth and Zobel, Adams Legal Papers, 179–80; Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 90; Unger, Merchant King, 124. The second trial began in October 1768, when charges were filed against Hancock and five others for allegedly unloading 100 pipes of wine from the Liberty without paying the duties.Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 534; Wroth and Zobel, Adams Legal Papers, 180–81. If convicted, the defendants would have had to pay a penalty of triple the value of the wine, which came to £9,000. With John Adams serving as his lawyer, Hancock was prosecuted in a highly publicized trial by a vice admiralty court, which had no jury and did not always allow the defense to cross-examine the witnesses.Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 535–36. After dragging out for nearly five months, the proceedings against Hancock were dropped without explanation.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 100; Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 539; Wroth and Zobel, Adams Legal Papers, 183. The Liberty incident created two popular images of Hancock: supporters celebrated him as a martyr to the Patriot cause, while critics portrayed him as a scheming smuggler. Historians have been similarly divided. "Hancock's guilt or innocence and the exact charges against him", wrote historian John W. Tyler in 1986, "are still fiercely debated."Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, 114. Historian Oliver Dickerson argued that Hancock was the victim of an essentially criminal racketeering scheme perpetrated by Governor Bernard and the customs officials. Dickerson believed that there is no reliable evidence that Hancock was guilty in the Liberty case, and that the purpose of the trials was to punish Hancock for political reasons and to plunder his property.Dickerson, "Notorious Smuggler", 518–25. Opposed to Dickerson's interpretation were Kinvin Wroth and Hiller Zobel, the editors of John Adams's legal papers, who argued that "Hancock's innocence is open to question", and that the British officials acted legally, if unwisely.Wroth and Zobel, Adams Legal Papers, 185–89, quote on page 185. Aside from the Liberty affair, the degree to which Hancock was engaged in smuggling, which was widespread in the colonies, has been questioned. Given the clandestine nature of smuggling, records are naturally scarce.Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, 13. If Hancock was a smuggler, no documentation of this has been found. John W. Tyler identified 23 smugglers in his study of more than 400 merchants in revolutionary Boston, but found no written evidence that Hancock was one of them.Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, 5, 16, 266. Biographer William Fowler concluded that while Hancock was probably engaged in some smuggling, most of his business was legitimate, and his reputation as the "king of the colonial smugglers" is a myth without foundation.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 82. Massacre to Tea Party The Liberty affair reinforced a previously made British decision to suppress unrest in Boston with a show of military might. The decision had been prompted by Samuel Adams's 1768 Circular Letter, which was sent to other British American colonies in hopes of coordinating resistance to the Townshend Acts. Lord Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies, sent four regiments of the British Army to Boston to support embattled royal officials, and instructed Governor Bernard to order the Massachusetts legislature to revoke the Circular Letter. Hancock and the Massachusetts House voted against rescinding the letter, and instead drew up a petition demanding Governor Bernard's recall.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 86–87. When Bernard returned to England in 1769, Bostonians celebrated.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 112; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 109. The British troops remained, however, and tensions between soldiers and civilians eventually resulted in the killing of five civilians in the so-called Boston Massacre of March 1770. Hancock was not involved in the incident, but afterwards he led a committee to demand the removal of the troops. Meeting with Bernard's successor, Governor Thomas Hutchinson, and the British officer in command, Colonel William Dalrymple, Hancock claimed that there were 10,000 armed colonists ready to march into Boston if the troops did not leave.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 124; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 120. Hutchinson knew that Hancock was bluffing, but the soldiers were in a precarious position when garrisoned within the town, and so Dalrymple agreed to remove both regiments to Castle William.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 124. Hancock was celebrated as a hero for his role in getting the troops withdrawn.Unger, Merchant King, 145; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 120. His reelection to the Massachusetts House in May was nearly unanimous.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 131; Brown, Middle-Class Democracy, 271. After Parliament partially repealed the Townshend duties in 1770, Boston's boycott of British goods ended.Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, 140. Politics became quieter in Massachusetts, although tensions remained.Brown, Middle-Class Democracy, 268–69. Hancock tried to improve his relationship with Governor Hutchinson, who in turn sought to woo Hancock away from Adams's influence.Brown, Middle-Class Democracy, 289–90. See also Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 61n7. In April 1772, Hutchinson approved Hancock's election as colonel of the Boston Cadets, a militia unit whose primary function was to provide a ceremonial escort for the governor and the General Court.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 136; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 124-27. In May, Hutchinson even approved of Hancock's election to the Council, the upper chamber of the General Court, whose members were elected by the House but subject to veto by the governor. Hancock's previous elections to the Council had been vetoed, but now Hutchinson allowed the election to stand. Hancock declined the office, however, not wanting to appear to have been co-opted by the governor. Nevertheless, Hancock used the improved relationship to resolve an ongoing dispute. To avoid hostile crowds in Boston, Hutchinson had been convening the legislature outside of town; now he agreed to allow the General Court to sit in Boston once again, to the relief of the legislators.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 136–42. Hutchinson had dared to hope that he could win over Hancock and discredit Adams.Brown, Middle-Class Democracy, 285. To some, it seemed that Adams and Hancock were indeed at odds: when Adams formed the Boston Committee of Correspondence in November 1772 to advocate colonial rights, Hancock declined to join, creating the impression that there was a split in the Whig ranks.Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 57–60. But whatever their differences, Hancock and Adams came together again in 1773 with the renewal of major political turmoil. They cooperated in the revelation of private letters of Thomas Hutchinson, in which the governor seemed to recommend "an abridgement of what are called English liberties" to bring order to the colony.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 150–52. The Massachusetts House, blaming Hutchinson for the military occupation of Boston, called for his removal as governor.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 152. Even more trouble followed Parliament's passage of the 1773 Tea Act. On November 5, Hancock was elected as moderator at a Boston town meeting that resolved that anyone who supported the Tea Act was an "Enemy to America".Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 156–57. Hancock and others tried to force the resignation of the agents who had been appointed to receive the tea shipments. Unsuccessful in this, they attempted to prevent the tea from being unloaded after three tea ships had arrived in Boston Harbor. Hancock was at the fateful meeting on December 16, where he reportedly told the crowd, "Let every man do what is right in his own eyes."Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 161; Unger, Merchant King, 169. Hancock did not take part in the Boston Tea Party that night, but he approved of the action, although he was careful not to publicly praise the destruction of private property.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 159–62. Over the next few months, Hancock was disabled by gout, which would trouble him with increasing frequency in the coming years. By March 5, 1774, he had recovered enough to deliver the fourth annual Massacre Day oration, a commemoration of the Boston Massacre. Hancock's speech denounced the presence of British troops in Boston, who he said had been sent there "to enforce obedience to acts of Parliament, which neither God nor man ever empowered them to make".Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 163. The speech, probably written by Hancock in collaboration with Adams, Joseph Warren, and others, was published and widely reprinted, enhancing Hancock's stature as a leading Patriot.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 165–66. Revolution begins Parliament responded to the Tea Party with the Boston Port Act, one of the so-called Coercive Acts intended to strengthen British control of the colonies. Hutchinson was replaced as governor by General Thomas Gage, who arrived in May 1774. On June 17, the Massachusetts House elected five delegates to send to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which was being organized to coordinate colonial response to the Coercive Acts. Hancock did not serve in the first Congress, possibly for health reasons, or possibly to remain in charge while the other Patriot leaders were away.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 176; Unger, Merchant King, 181. Gage soon dismissed Hancock from his post as colonel of the Boston Cadets.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 174. In October 1774, Gage canceled the scheduled meeting of the General Court. In response, the House resolved itself into the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, a body independent of British control. Hancock was elected as president of the Provincial Congress and was a key member of the Committee of Safety.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 177. The Provincial Congress created the first minutemen companies, consisting of militiamen who were to be ready for action on a moment's notice.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 177; Unger, Merchant King, 185. A revolution had begun. in Lexington when the Revolutionary War began.]] On December 1, 1774, the Provincial Congress elected Hancock as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress to replace James Bowdoin, who had been unable to attend the first Congress because of illness.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 177; Unger, Merchant King, 187. Before Hancock reported to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, the Provincial Congress unanimously reelected him as their president in February 1775. Hancock's multiple roles gave him enormous influence in Massachusetts, and as early as January 1774 British officials had considered arresting him.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 179. After attending the Provincial Congress in Concord in April 1775, Hancock and Samuel Adams decided that it was not safe to return to Boston before leaving for Philadelphia. They stayed instead at Hancock's childhood home in Lexington.Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, 94, 108; Unger, Merchant King, 190. On April 14, 1775, Gage received a letter from Lord Dartmouth advising him "to arrest the principal actors and abettors in the Provincial Congress whose proceedings appear in every light to be acts of treason and rebellion".Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, 76; Alden, "March to Concord", 451; Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 181. On the night of April 18, Gage sent out a detachment of soldiers on the fateful mission that would spark the American Revolutionary War. The purpose of the British expedition was to seize and destroy military supplies that the colonists had stored in Concord. According to many historical accounts, Gage also instructed his men to arrest Hancock and Adams, but, as historian John Alden pointed out in 1944, the written orders issued by Gage made no mention of arresting the Patriot leaders.Alden, "March to Concord", 453. Gage apparently decided that he had nothing to gain by arresting Hancock and Adams, since other leaders would simply take their place, and the British would be portrayed as the aggressors.Alden, "March to Concord", 452; Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, 85. Although Gage had evidently decided against seizing Hancock and Adams, Patriots initially believed otherwise. From Boston, Joseph Warren dispatched messenger Paul Revere to warn Hancock and Adams that British troops were on the move and might attempt to arrest them. Revere reached Lexington around midnight and gave the warning.Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, 110; Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 183. Hancock, still considering himself a militia colonel, wanted to take the field with the Patriot militia at Lexington, but Adams and others convinced him to avoid battle, arguing that he was more valuable as a political leader than as a soldier.Fisher, Paul Revere's Ride, 177–78; Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 184. As Hancock and Adams made their escape, the first shots of the war were fired at Lexington and Concord. Soon after the battle, Gage issued a proclamation granting a general pardon to all who would "lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects"—with the exceptions of Hancock and Samuel Adams.The text of Gage's proclamation is available online from the Library of Congress. Singling out Hancock and Adams in this manner only added to their renown among Patriots.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 193. President of Congress , c. 1772]] With the war underway, Hancock made his way to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia with the other Massachusetts delegates. On May 24, 1775, he was unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding Peyton Randolph after Henry Middleton declined the nomination. Hancock was a good choice for president for several reasons.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 190; Unger, Merchant King, 206. He was experienced, having often presided over legislative bodies and town meetings in Massachusetts. His wealth and social standing inspired the confidence of moderate delegates, while his association with Boston radicals made him acceptable to other radicals. His position was somewhat ambiguous, because the role of the president was not fully defined, and it was not clear if Randolph had resigned or was on a leave of absence.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 191. Like other presidents of Congress, Hancock's authority was limited to that of a presiding officer.William M. Fowler. "Hancock, John"; American National Biography Online, February 2000. He also had to handle a great deal of official correspondence, and he found it necessary to hire clerks at his own expense to help with the paperwork.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 205; Unger, Merchant King, 237. In Congress on June 15, 1775, Massachusetts delegate John Adams nominated George Washington as commander in chief of the army then gathered around Boston. Many years later, Adams wrote that Hancock had shown great disappointment at not getting the command for himself. If true, Hancock did not let his disappointment interfere with his duties, and he always showed admiration and support for General Washington,Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 192. even though Washington politely declined Hancock's request for a military appointment.Unger, Merchant King, 215. When Congress recessed on August 1, 1775, Hancock took the opportunity to wed his fiancée, Dorothy "Dolly" Quincy. The couple was married on August 28 in Fairfield, Connecticut.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 197; Unger, Merchant King, 218. John and Dorothy would have two children, neither of whom survived to adulthood. Their daughter Lydia Henchman Hancock was born in 1776 and died ten months later.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 214, 218. Their son John George Washington Hancock was born in 1778 and died in 1787 after falling down and hitting his head while ice skating.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 229, 265; Unger, Merchant King, 309. Hancock served in Congress through some of the darkest days of the Revolutionary War. The British drove Washington from New York and New Jersey in 1776, which prompted Congress to flee to Baltimore, Maryland.Unger, Merchant King, 248. Hancock and Congress returned to Philadelphia in March 1777, but were compelled to flee six months later when the British occupied Philadelphia.Unger, Merchant King, 255. Hancock wrote innumerable letters to colonial officials, raising money, supplies, and troops for Washington's army.Unger, Merchant King, 216–22. He chaired the Marine Committee, and took pride in helping to create a small fleet of American frigates, including the [[USS Hancock (1776)|USS Hancock]], which was named in his honor.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 198–99; Unger, Merchant King, 245. Signing the Declaration Hancock was president of Congress when the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. He is primarily remembered by Americans for his large, flamboyant signature on the Declaration, so much so that "John Hancock" became, in the United States, an informal synonym for signature.Allan, Patriot in Purple, vii; see also Merriam-Webster online and Dictionary.com. According to a popular legend, Hancock signed his name largely and clearly so that King George could read it without his spectacles, but this fanciful story did not appear until many years later.Unger, Merchant King, 241. See also "John Hancock and Bull Story", from Snopes.com. Contrary to popular mythology, there was no ceremonial signing of the Declaration on July 4, 1776.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 213. After Congress approved the wording of the text on July 4, a copy was sent to be printed. As president, Hancock may have signed the document that was sent to the printer, but this is uncertain because that document is lost, perhaps destroyed in the printing process.Boyd, "Mystery of the Lost Original", 450. The printer produced the first published version of the Declaration, the widely distributed Dunlap broadside. Hancock, as President of Congress, was the only delegate whose name appeared on the broadside, which meant that until a second broadside was issued six months later with all of the signers listed, Hancock was the only delegate whose name was publicly attached to the treasonous document.Allan, Patriot in Purple, 230–31. Hancock sent a copy of the Dunlap broadside to George Washington, instructing him to have it read to the troops "in the way you shall think most proper".Unger, Merchant King, 242. Hancock's name was printed, not signed, on the Dunlap broadside; his iconic signature appears on a different document—a sheet of parchment that was carefully handwritten sometime after July 19 and signed on August 2 by Hancock and those delegates present.Boyd, "Mystery of the Lost Original", 464–65. Known as the engrossed copy, this is the famous document on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Return to Massachusetts 's famous painting The Declaration of Independence, Hancock, as presiding officer, is seated on the right as the drafting committee presents their work.]] In October 1777, after more than two years in Congress, President Hancock requested a leave of absence.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 219; Unger, Merchant King, 256. He asked George Washington to arrange a military escort for his return to Boston. Although Washington was short on manpower, he nevertheless sent fifteen horsemen to accompany Hancock on his journey home.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 220; Unger, Merchant King, 256–57. By this time Hancock had become estranged from Samuel Adams, who disapproved of what he viewed as Hancock's vanity and extravagance, which Adams believed were inappropriate in a republican leader. When Congress voted to thank Hancock for his service, Adams and the other Massachusetts delegates voted against the resolution, as did a few delegates from other states.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 207, 220, 230. Back in Boston, Hancock was reelected to the House of Representatives. As in previous years, his philanthropy made him popular. Although his finances had suffered greatly because of the war, he gave to the poor, helped support widows and orphans, and loaned money to friends. According to biographer William Fowler, "John Hancock was a generous man and the people loved him for it. He was their idol."Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 225–26. In December 1777, he was reelected as a delegate to the Continental Congress and as moderator of the Boston town meeting.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 225. Hancock rejoined the Continental Congress in Pennsylvania in June 1778, but his brief time there was unhappy. In his absence, Congress had elected Henry Laurens as its new president, which was a disappointment to Hancock, who had hoped to reclaim his chair. Hancock got along poorly with Samuel Adams, and missed his wife and newborn son.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 230–31. On July 9, 1778, Hancock and the other Massachusetts delegates joined the representatives from seven other states in signing the Articles of Confederation;Unger, Merchant King, 270. the remaining states were not yet prepared to sign, and the Articles would not be ratified until 1781. Hancock returned to Boston in July 1778, motivated by the opportunity to finally lead men in combat. Back in 1776, he had been appointed as the senior major general of the Massachusetts militia.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 207. Now that the French fleet had come to the aid of the Americans, General Washington instructed General John Sullivan of the Continental Army to lead an attack on the British garrison at Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1778. Hancock nominally commanded 6,000 militiamen in the campaign, although he let the professional soldiers do the planning and issue the orders. It was a fiasco: French Admiral d'Estaing abandoned the operation, after which Hancock's militia mostly deserted Sullivan's Continentals.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 232–34; Unger, Merchant King, 270–73. Hancock suffered some criticism for the debacle but emerged from his brief military career with his popularity intact.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 234–35; Unger, Merchant King, 274–75. After much delay, the new Massachusetts Constitution finally went into effect in October 1780. To no one's surprise, Hancock was elected Governor of Massachusetts in a landslide, winning over 90% of the vote.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 243–44. He governed Massachusetts through the end of the Revolutionary War and into an economically troubled postwar period. Hancock took a hands-off approach to governing, avoiding controversial issues as much as possible. According to William Fowler, Hancock "never really led" and "never used his strength to deal with the critical issues confronting the commonwealth".Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 246–47. Hancock was easily reelected to annual terms as governor,Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 255. until his surprise resignation on January 29, 1785. Hancock cited his failing health as the reason, but he may also have been aware of growing unrest in the countryside and wanted to get out of office before the trouble came.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 258–59. Hancock's critics often suspected that he suffered from "political gout", which is when an official allegedly uses an illness to avoid a difficult political situation.Allan, Patriot in Purple, 222; J. T. Adams, "Empty Barrel", 430. Adams wrote that Hancock's "two chief resources were his money and his gout, the first always used to gain popularity, and the second to prevent his losing it." The turmoil that Hancock avoided became known as Shays' Rebellion, which Hancock's successor James Bowdoin had to deal with. After the uprising, Hancock was reelected in 1787, and he promptly pardoned all the rebels.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 265–66; Unger, Merchant King, 311. Hancock was reelected to annual terms as governor for the remainder of his life. Final years , erected in 1896.Allan, Patriot in Purple, viii.]] When he had resigned as governor in 1785, Hancock was again elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress, known as the Confederation Congress after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781. Congress had declined in importance after the Revolutionary War, and was frequently ignored by the states. Congress elected Hancock to serve as its president, but he never attended because of his poor health and because he was not interested. He sent Congress a letter of resignation in 1786.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 264. In 1787, in an effort to remedy the perceived defects of the Articles of Confederation, delegates met at the Philadelphia Convention and drafted the United States Constitution, which was then sent to the states for ratification or rejection. Hancock, who was not present at the Philadelphia Convention, had misgivings about the new Constitution's lack of a bill of rights and its shift of power to a central government.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 267–69. In January 1788, Hancock was elected president of the Massachusetts ratifying convention, although he was ill and not present when the convention began.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 268. Hancock mostly remained silent during the contentious debates, but as the convention was drawing to close, he gave a speech in favor of ratification. For the first time in years, Samuel Adams supported Hancock's position.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 270. Even with the support of Hancock and Adams, the Massachusetts convention narrowly ratified the Constitution by a vote of 187 to 168. Hancock's support was probably a deciding factor in the ratification.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 271; Allan, Patriot in Purple, 331–32. Hancock was put forth as a candidate in the 1789 U. S. presidential election. As was the custom in an era where political ambition was viewed with suspicion, Hancock did not campaign or even publicly express interest in the office; he instead made his wishes known indirectly. Like everyone else, Hancock knew that George Washington was going to be elected as the first president, but Hancock may have been interested in being vice president, despite his poor health.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 274. Hancock received only four electoral votes in the election, however, none of them from his home state; the Massachusetts electors all voted for another native son, John Adams, who became the vice president.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 275. Hancock was disappointed with his poor showing, but he remained as popular as ever in Massachusetts.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 275. His health failing, Hancock spent his final few years as essentially a figurehead governor. With his wife at his side, he died in bed on October 8, 1793, at fifty-six years of age.Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 279; Unger, Merchant King, 330. By order of acting governor Samuel Adams, the day of Hancock's burial was a state holiday; the lavish funeral was perhaps the grandest given to an American up to that time.Allan, Patriot in Purple, 358; Unger, Merchant King, 331. Legacy ]] Many places and things in the United States have been named in honor of John Hancock. The U.S. Navy has named vessels [[USS Hancock|USS Hancock]] and [[USS John Hancock|USS John Hancock]]; a World War II Liberty ship was also named in his honor.Unger, Merchant King, 355. Ten states have a Hancock County named for him;Gannett, Place Names, 148. other places named after him include Hancock, Massachusetts; Hancock, Michigan; Hancock, New York; and Mount Hancock in New Hampshire. The John Hancock Insurance company, founded in Boston in 1862, was also named for him; it had no connection to Hancock's own business ventures.Unger, Merchant King, 337. The insurance company has passed on the name to famous office buildings such as the John Hancock Tower in Boston and the John Hancock Center in Chicago, and the John Hancock Student Village at Boston University. References Notes Bibliography *Adams, James Truslow. "Portrait of an Empty Barrel". Harpers Magazine 161 (September 1930), 425–34. *Alden, John R. "Why the March to Concord?" The American Historical Review 49 (1944), 446–54. *Allan, Herbert S. John Hancock: Patriot in Purple. New York: Macmillan, 1948. *Boyd, Julian P. "The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 100, number 4 (October 1976) , 438–67. Available online from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. *Brown, Richard D. Revolutionary Politics in Massachusetts: The Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Towns, 1772–1774. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-393-008-10-X. *Brown, Robert E. Middle-Class Democracy and the Revolution in Massachusetts, 1691–1789. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1955. *Dickerson, O. M. "John Hancock: Notorious Smuggler or Near Victim of British Revenue Racketeers?" The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 32, no. 4 (March 1946), 517–40. This article was later incorporated into Dickerson's The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1951). *Fischer, David Hackett. Paul Revere's Ride. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-19-508847-6. *Fowler, William M., Jr. The Baron of Beacon Hill: A Biography of John Hancock. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. ISBN 0-395-27619-5. *———. Samuel Adams: Radical Puritan. New York: Longman, 1997. ISBN 0-673-99293-4. *Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1973. ISBN 0806305444. *Nobles, Gregory. "Yet the Old Republicans Still Persevere: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and the Crisis of Popular Leadership in Revolutionary Massachusetts, 1775–90" in Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert, eds., The Transforming Hand of Revolution: Reconsidering the American Revolution as a Social Movement. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, 258–85. *Proctor, Donald J. "John Hancock: New Soundings on an Old Barrel". The Journal of American History 64, no. 3 (December 1977), 652–77. *Reid, John Phillip. In a Rebellious Spirit: The Argument of Facts, the Liberty Riot, and the Coming of the American Revolution. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-271-00202-6. *Tyler, John W. Smugglers & Patriots: Boston Merchants and the Advent of the American Revolution. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-930350-76-6. *Wroth, L. Kinvin and Hiller B. Zobel, eds. Legal Papers of John Adams, volume 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1965. *Unger, Harlow Giles. John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot. New York: Wiley & Sons, 2000. ISBN 0-471-33209-7. Further reading *Baxter, William T. The House of Hancock: Business in Boston, 1724–1775. 1945. Reprint, New York: Russell & Russell, 1965. Deals primarily with Thomas Hancock's business career. *Brandes, Paul D. John Hancock’s Life and Speeches: A Personalized Vision of the American Revolution, 1763–1793. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1996. ISBN 0810830760. Contains the full text of many speeches. *Brown, Abram E. John Hancock, His Book. Boston, 1898. Mostly extracts from Hancock's letters. *Sears, Lorenzo. John Hancock, The Picturesque Patriot. 1912. The first full biography of Hancock. *Wolkins, George G. "The Seizure of John Hancock's Sloop Liberty". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 55 (1923), 239–84. Reprints the primary documents. 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